There are so many online business opportunities flooding the market everyday it is becoming more difficult to readily identify the ones that exist simply to take your money and disappear the next day.
In addition to the money that can be lost, scams also waste valuable time that could be spent on more lucrative legitimate businesses and they can rob a person of their reputation.
It in addition to time and money, personal stress levels can bring you to the moon and back in less than 24 hours.
With any business venture, time is usually at a premium for the owner and wasting time on scams can be expensive.
There are a few red flags that anyone interested in owning an online business needs to be aware of before they fall into the many traps set to snare them into the fraudulent opportunity.
Remember, there is a difference between a scam and hype in that hype is usually overstating the value of the opportunity and a scam is presenting an opportunity that does not usually exist.
1.
The first sign of a scam usually presents itself at the beginning of the sale pitch.
It will say something like make tons of money with little effort, or a real turnkey operation that allows you to make money within 10 minutes of signing up.
If it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.
There are no business opportunities in which the owner of a website can make tons of money and not do anything.
Additionally, it can take several weeks, if not months to generate enough traffic to begin making money online.
2.
Upfront charges to join a business opportunity are not uncommon and the money paid is typically for helping the company build their online infrastructure.
However, if you have to buy products or pay for a membership in order to be eligible to receive commission payments, red flags should be waving in your face.
Honest business will not make you pay a monthly fee to maintain your position as a distributor for their products.
3.
Many fraudulent offers use hyped advertising to hook prospects and then use testimonials about others who got rich in their special online program to reel them in.
Testimonials always don't tell the whole story.
This is a red flag.
Notice the required disclaimer about the amount of income being unique and may not be typical and any income made through their program will be based on the amount of effort a person puts into the business.
Chances are, working their so-called program 24 hours a day, seven days a week will not enable someone to make that much money.
4.
People that write the sales pitches are very good at what they do.
Chances are they write for all types of businesses, legitimate and those that are not quite so honest, and they get paid to produce ad copy that gains a person's interest, presents the hype and then close the sale online.
However, in less than honest hyped advertising after reading the entire pitch, there usually is no clues as to what the product or service being offered will be.
In order to find out what type of business you will be involved with and promoting, you have to become a paid member.
This is a red flag.
Don't get sucked into these red flags: 1.
Believing you can amass wealth with little or no effort 2.
Paying for a membership that is required to receive commission payments 3.
Testimonials that don't tell real and entire story 4.
An offer that doesn't tell you what the product is until you pay.